Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Photo TR: Six Flags St. Louis (June 13th and 14th)


Recommended Posts

After 5 years of wanting to visit, I finally hit up SFSTL this week. Compared to my homepark, SFGAm, it is quite a bit smaller and has more of an old-timey feel to it. Another thing is that the place was pretty much dead both days, with every coaster either being a station wait or a walk-on, something that would be very rare here in Chicago, but supposedly normal for St. Louis.

 

Upon entering the park we picked up some maps and headed to American Thunder. It was only running 1 train (blue), but we were still able to board in less than 10 minutes. As it was my first GCI, we opted for back row. I have to say, I was impressed. It had the same strong floater airtime of GAm's Viper, but was more intense. I still don't know which I prefer, since Viper is much longer despite being less forceful, though they both sit right outside of my top 5.

 

With the temperature nearing 90°, we took advantage of the non-existent line for the Log Flume and rode twice. It was fun, but barely got me wet. The sloped speed drop towards the middle of the ride was a pretty cool element, probably my favorite part of the ride.

 

I was interested in seeing how the original Justice League: Battle for Metropolis compares to SFGAm's 2.0 version so it was my next stop. At just over 10 minutes, it had the "longest" wait of the day. Just from the queue itself, it wasn't hard to tell this was a prototype version of the ride. A lot less theming in the indoor queue and the screens/Cyborg were a bit glitchy and would randomly shut off every now and then. The actual ride itself was also a bit of a downgrade, with many effects off, seemingly emptier rooms, and more glitches. The worst difference, in my opinion, was that the subway chase scene was split into two different rooms, which really killed the effect. I know that all sounds really negative, but nevertheless, it was a fun ride, as usual. Sally Corp. really improved the ride in the 2.0 version, and I bet the 3.0 at MM, OG, and GADv is even better.

 

Across the midway was the ride I was most looking forward to on this trip - Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast. We walked all the way up to the station and waited 1 cycle for the "front" (seat with the best view). I was confused on where to fasten the seatbelt at first, but quickly realized it was to the side. Anyways, it was a kicka$$ ride from start to finish. The top-hat inversion is easily one of my favorites. The overbanked turn is as forceful as it looks, and of course the back spike is amazing. I do prefer backwards, but going forwards on the return trip was fun as well.

 

Still hot, we decided to ride Thunder River next. I got soaked from some water cannons not too long after departing the station, but managed to avoid any extreme soaking for the remainder of the ride. I have to give a slight preference to SFGAm's Roaring Rapids for having a better setting and providing more opportunities to get wet. I'm glad we did this one when we did, because not too long after it was drained and stayed closed for the rest of the day.

 

Back to credit-hunting, we hit up Pandemonium. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, actually liking it better than Ragin' Cajun. (Only other spinner I've ridden) I was lucky enough to have been facing backwards on both the main drop, and the MCBR drop, both of which provided a nice pop of air.

 

It got a bit cloudy so we quickly got in line for The Boss, anticipating a storm. On our way to The Boss, we noticed that Highland Fling (Schwarzkopf Enterprise) was unfortunately down (And would be down both days). I was really looking forward to riding it since my homepark lost ours last August, but oh well. Once in the station we noticed that nobody was waiting for the fourth last row so that's where we went. It started to drizzle a bit when we were on the lift hill, so that was pretty cool I guess. It wasn't B&M smooth, but it wasn't nearly as bad as some people had made it out to be, I actually enjoyed it despite it not having much airtime at all. My 2nd ride on it later in the day, was quite different, however...

 

It ended up not raining like it was supposed to thankfully, so everything continued to operate. We had lunch at 1904 Classic (Foot long hot dogs) and got back to riding.

 

I was honestly expecting Screamin' Eagle to be the park's "hidden gem", but it didn't do much for me. I refuse to call any coaster without head/ear banging rough, but it wasn't smooth by any means. The airtime wasn't anything special, even for the back seat. I did like how it went through the trees, but overall it was just okay, nothing to write home about...

 

Earlier we were told River King Mine Train (and Ninja) were closed due to a family of deer being too close to the track but they must've left because it just opened back up when we walked past, allowing us to score a literal walk-on for the back-row. Based on POVS and being a family coaster, I wasn't expecting too much, and I was right. I did enjoy the final drop into the tunnel, though.

 

Normally I'd expect a new attraction to have a long wait, but apparently not at SFSTL . We were able to walk right on to Spinsanity. Pretty slow loading process here. It kind of felt like a spinning disk on a Zamperla Disk'O track. Tame, but fun. I wouldn't wait more than 20 minutes for it, though.

 

Ninja had opened back up but we decided to save it for later and ride The Joker Inc. Only a minute wait and we were able to get 2nd last row. Didn't seem as intense as GAm's River Rocker for some reason, but I like how SFSTL's flat rides had pretty good theming.

 

It was funny finally seeing Batman's infamously long queue line in person. One group of kids thought it was a good idea to jump over the railings to save some time walking resulting in one boy falling head-first on the ground and making a blood stain. His two friends/siblings had to carry him out of the queue. Anyways, the station was empty like every other coaster, except Batman was running 2 trains, meaning it was marathon time. We did front and back twice each and did front again, totaling 5 rides, all without leaving the station to board again. It did seem a bit jerkier than SFGAm's but it was still a great ride. We actually got stopped at the top of the lift hill for half a minute on our last ride, so I guess I can cross off getting stuck on a roller coaster off my bucket list.

 

We cooled off a bit and went back to American Thunder, going for row 3 this time. I did like back row better but it's still a great ride regardless of seat.

 

I'm a sucker for an antique cars ride and the Moon Antique Cars delivered. It was short but brought back some old memories of GAm Raceway.

 

Did Pandemonium again, generally the same as before, though I did find some change from the previous rider in my seat, most of which fell out during the spinning.

 

Round 2 on The Boss was not as good as the first. Wanting a different experience, we chose to ride in row 2. This is DEFINITELY a back seat coaster, but not for airtime - for smoothness. As early as after the first drop, I noticed weird vibrations and shuffling of the train that made for an unpleasant ride. It dropped a bit in my rankings due to this ride on it.

 

We rode the Tommy G. Robertson Railway next. Some cool views of the edges of the park.

 

Tsunami Soaker was an interesting flat. Kind of like a cross-over between a splash battle and a very slow tea-cup ride. Nice way to cool off

 

I had been looking forward to trying a Skyscreamer for quite some time so we did that next. Not that thrilling, but very fun and some spectacular views.

 

It'd been 8-10 years since my last ride on a shoot-the-chutes so I wanted to ride Tidal Wave while we were there. Easily the park's best water ride (In my opinion) aside from it's length, and I got drenched. I'm no expert on Six Flags St. Louis but I've heard rumors that this ride may be on it's way out soon. My guess is that if that's the case, it'll be replaced with an S&S Freefly or Zamperla Giant Discovery. (Those rides don't exactly have the same footprint but I think they could make either work with the space given) That'd really round out that corner of the park.

 

Next was Superman: Tower of Power. I was impressed with how fast the cars moved up to the top of the tower. Good 'ol 2nd Gen. drop ride, but I prefer Giant Drop for having better theming and better views.

 

Hoping to get a different perspective of Screamin' Eagle, I rode again. I did ride towards the back again, which probably wasn't a good idea for trying to get a different ride, but it had the shortest wait. Same experience as before. Moving on...

 

Fireball was something I was really looking forward to. I only had to wait about 2 minutes before I was on. I was a bit irritated because I had been waiting for the edge seat, but the guests who were on the previous cycle decided to stay in that spot The rule at other rides was that if someone was waiting for your row, you had to move if you wanted to re-ride but I guess the ride ops didn't care here. What can you do I guess.

That aside, I rode in the second from the edge row and thoroughly enjoyed my ride. Very comfortable restraints, decent length cycle, and you get some wicked hangtime at the top of the loop. This was my favorite non-coaster ride.

 

I was craving another ride on Mr. Freeze so we went back there. This time we tried "back" row (Seat that would reach the top of the vertical spike). Just as good as before, if not better.

 

I enjoy a good scrambler so we rode Shazam!, another excellent themed flat ride.

 

We'd been wanting to try Colossus all day so we took it for a whirl. A large ferris wheel is one of few classic flat rides missing from SFGAm's line-up, so it was nice to be able to ride one here.

 

I'd heard Xcalibur made many people feel queasy, but I felt just fine when I rode it. Actually, I'd say it was my 3rd favorite flat at the park after Fireball and Superman. It didn't seem to be very popular however, as it had an empty queue basically all day and when it did run it would be with less than 5 people on a cycle. Hmm.

 

I'd been dreading this moment all day, but I decided to grow a pair and take a beating on the black belt of roller coasters - Ninja. Pretty much everything was on the empty side but literally NOBODY was riding Ninja. It'd been open for a few hours at this point and everytime I'd see it run there'd usually 1 or 2 people riding, if that. The operators were snickering and making jokes about how nobody was riding in one of the trains. Anyways, we got into the station and went for back row. I asked the ride attendant if back row was the smoothest (I heard it was) and she told me she usually goes front row on Ninja but back is her favorite seat on most coasters so it probably was? Not much help but atleast the employees were friendly. Just as they were about to open the airgates for us and send us to karate practice, they announced they were having trouble with the restraints and the ride would be down for a bit. It was about 7:45 at this point (15 minutes from park closing) and I guess they decided it wasn't worth it because a minute later they announced that Ninja would not reopen. I'll feel kind of cheated out if it's removed before I can return to SFSTL but it was probably for the better, anyway.

 

What better way to finish off the night with some more rides on Batman? With 10 minutes to spare by the time we reached the station, we managed 3 more rides on it, bringing our total up to 8 rides on B:TR for the day. Weird that the park was closing at 8 PM, but it didn't even matter because of the amount of stuff we did.

 

The next day we were mainly going for Hurricane Harbor, and to see if we could ride Ninja and possibly Boomerang, Highland Fling (Both of which never opened on either day), and Grand Ole Carousel so we could claim we rode everything, though we ended up not getting on any of the 4.

 

STL Hurricane Harbor looks really nice, and a lot less "concrete-jungly" than SFGAm's. It must be pretty popular here because a price for a small locker was $14, a lot steeper than in Chicago, so we opted to not get one. We did make the mistake of spending $8 for a non-refundable tube that we ended up only being able to use for a minute, due to rain.

 

When the water park opened at 11, Hurricane Bay (Wavepool, which we wanted to do first) was closed for some reason.

We waited it out for about 10 minutes before deciding to do the speed slides instead. We did Geronimo Falls and Kontiki Falls. (Wahini Falls was closed.) I'm not that huge on water slides as I am on coasters, but I do enjoy them a bit. I prefer Geronimo Falls for being more thrilling, though I did swallow a bit of water at the bottom of the drop.

 

We got in line for Tornado when they announced it would shut down for inclement weather. Yep, everything was closed for about an hour, until the storm cleared up. We got in Hurricane Bay, and literally a minute later they asked everyone to get out because it started to rain again. We opted to just leave the water park at that point, but it began clearing out again while we were leaving Ninja was closed for the weather and we didn't care to wait it out so we went to the gift shop, got some turkey legs, and left.

 

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Six Flags St. Louis. It was my first time leaving Illinois in over 10 years, and was my first coaster trip. I do prefer Six Flags Great America, but it was still cool trying out another Six Flags. The park has quite a few mediocre coasters and could really use another stand-out, perhaps a relocated large looper (Scream! or Bizzaro maybe?) or a new hyper. (Though I can't see the latter happening with the current management of Six Flags)

 

Ride Totals:

6/13:

American Thunder x2 (x1 back)

Log Flume x2

Justice League: Battle for Metropolis x1

Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast x2 (x1 front, x1 back)

Thunder River x1

Pandemonium x2

The Boss x2

Screamin' Eagle x2 (x1 back)

River King Mine Train x1 (x1 back)

Spinsanity x1

The Joker Inc. x1

Batman: The Ride x8 (x3 back, x3 front)

Moon Antique Cars x1 (Driver)

Tommy G. Robertson Railway x1

Tsunami Soaker x1

Skyscreamer x1

Tidal Wave x1 (x1 back)

Superman: Tower of Power x1

Fireball x1

Shazam! x1

Colossus x1

Xcalibur x1

---

6/14

Kontiki Falls x1

Geronimo Falls x1

Hurricane Bay x1

 

Trip Total: 38 Rides

 

Pictures:

 

Somewhere in Illinois.. on the way to St. Louis

 

Near Springfield, Illinois IIRC

 

Almost in Missouri...

 

... and we're here!

 

GCI goodness

 

Bad picture, but it's to show how empty the queue rooms were compared to SFGAm's version of the ride

 

Cyborg decided to stay still for a few minutes

 

Intensity at it's finest

 

Mr. Freeze

 

Thunder River's queue area provided some cool views of the ride

 

This was a good family coaster.

 

Spinning coasters in general are pretty enjoyable. Obviously nothing crazy good, but just plain fun.

 

The Boss needs to resign... Joking, but it could benefit from some track work and new trains

 

*sigh* Spite

 

:/

 

Empty queue lines are a beautiful sight

 

Spin-sane-ity

 

A lot of intense coasters at this park

 

Apparently these are the old Hannibarrels cars, recycled into seating for the train station. Pretty neat homage

 

Average Eagle

 

#LastSplash2017?

 

I don't understand the hate for these, it was a ton of fun

 

What are these "lines" you speak of?

 

Pretty underrated coaster

 

I enjoyed Colossus

 

Best ride here

 

Proof that I was actually going to ride Ninja, this picture was taken from the queue line/station.

 

Batman from Hurricane Harbor

 

Goodbye St. Louis!

 

Ah, gas station merch.

 

Thanks for reading!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 13
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

too bad you didn't get to ride Ninja. .if it's anything like Anaconda (at King's Dominion) it's really not as bad as it's reputation.

 

nice pics, and glad you had mostly good weather, and no lines!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great report, thanks for sharing.

 

I enjoyed Six Flags St. Louis when I visited, although it has been 8 or 9 years since my last visit. A lot has changed, I may be due for another visit soon. When we went virtually every ride was a walk on as well, it's a great feeling being at any park and getting lucky with walk-ons all day long.

 

The boss was the worst ride I have ever rode, I don't remember exactly where we sat but I do remember the pain I felt during and after the ride. To this day, it is the only ride that I have rode where I needed an extended break once I got off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eagle didn't do anything for, either. Barely left my seat.

 

You will probably live longer since you didn't ride Ninja.

 

I didn't think the Boss was that bad, either! Freeze is fantastic. I wish it had been cloned more.

 

Happy to hear you didn't have a bad time with their food service - during my visit we opted for starvation.

 

Only advice I can give you for next visit is ...go to the City Museum for half the day instead of the park! And Bogarts BBQ is right around the corner from there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice report, I know little about this park so thanks for sharing.

 

It was funny finally seeing Batman's infamously long queue line in person.

I had no idea this was a thing and just found and watched a youtube of it. Hahah omg wtf?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys

 

I probably just caught Screamin' Eagle on a bad day, but it was really underwhelming.

 

I am kind of upset that I was spited by Ninja though it does look pretty bad, even more so in person. The turn following the MCBR and the transition into the first corkscrew look especially painful.

 

Happy to hear you didn't have a bad time with their food service - during my visit we opted for starvation.

 

Only advice I can give you for next visit is ...go to the City Museum for half the day instead of the park! And Bogarts BBQ is right around the corner from there...

 

Oh, yeah we actually did have 2 bad food service experiences, I just forgot to mention them. xD

 

1. We went to get a popcorn bucket refill at the Cotton Candy Factory by Boomerang. After a minute or so of playing around with the cash register the employee told us it was her first day and she wasn't sure how to make the transaction, so she left for at least 10 minutes. Came back with her supervisor who rolled her eyes and muttered "What do you need?" Then she tried to charge us for a popcorn bucket rather than a refill.

 

2. There was 2 people in front of us at Friar Tuck's (Turkey Leg place), yet it still took 15+ minutes to get our food

 

Completely opposite experience at Primo's Pizzeria (Britannia) and 1904 Classic, though. Fast Service and nice employees

 

We probably should've done more toursity stuff but the trip was mainly for SFSTL Maybe next time

 

It was funny finally seeing Batman's infamously long queue line in person.

I had no idea this was a thing and just found and watched a youtube of it. Hahah omg wtf?!

 

Yep, it would've been impossible to marathon had the rows in the station been filled. Must be a good 3.5 hour line when full. Can't even imagine waiting in that for Batman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice TR!

 

Shame about Eagle as I love it. The old girl just may not of been running good that day. Being local to it, SFSTL is the only SF park I've ever visited...do the other Batman clones have the insanely long queue? I always figured they did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only reason to ride Ninja is to get the credit, it stinks on ice. You're right about the part after the MCBR going into the corkscrew, some of the worst headbanging around in my experience, though I haven't ridden it in years.

 

I could see how Screamin' Eagle could be a letdown, but it holds a special place for many of us who grew up riding it. Most of the air is floaty on the way out with the best parts being the big hill(no. 3) and the 2 immediately following the turn around and the last turn. It's a little bumpy, but much more fun at night.

 

The Boss is another ride that benefits from darkness. They retracked and seem to have reprofiled the double down after the first drop this year, killing off some of its intensity. One of my favorite coasters, as I like fast and intense rides, and you're right, SFSTL has a few intense rides for their size.

 

Glad you enjoyed your visit and extra glad you got to get in many rides with the short lines!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice TR!

 

Shame about Eagle as I love it. The old girl just may not of been running good that day. Being local to it, SFSTL is the only SF park I've ever visited...do the other Batman clones have the insanely long queue? I always figured they did.

 

If you count the switchbacks, the one in Georgia could be extremely long, fortunately it's almost never that busy in fact outside of Fright Fest I don't remember seeing them used in forever. You go through a small Gotham section, into two storm drains, and the stairs right up to the station. I never really thought the Batman queue was that bad at St.Louis, The Boss was worse, and compared to American Eagle at SFGAM, it's a cakewalk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great TR.

 

I had no idea this was a thing and just found and watched a youtube of it. Hahah omg wtf?!

It's definitely a thing. It was awesome back in 'the day' when the queue really helped build anticipation for the ride. Now, it's just annoying. There also used to be a lot more effects, including a wrecked cop car into a fire hydrant that sprayed water all over the car. But as you can imagine those effects have been gone for years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/